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Participatory Architectures

by Paula Thornton

August 20, 2009 at 6:28 pm · Filed under Enterprise 2.0, Innovation

Language and terms are critical. Both Tony-Golsby Smith (~60min. video) and the authors of Tribal Leadership insist that language shapes a culture.

And so, there is often a lot of debate about terms in evolving disciplines. For Enterprise 2.0 there are no exceptions. Having conversations with the same terms that mean different things gets pretty confusing. Even industry colleague Sameer Patel (@SameerPatel) recently admitted that he’s avoiding use of many terms except among colleagues (or at the end of conversations), because they hinder understanding more than not.

Concepts are powerful. People who lament them being ‘vague’, misunderstand the purpose and value of them being exactly what they are (such individuals are also likely to complain about water being wet). So, I’m offering a concept to be considered for our conversations: Participatory Architecture. This is one that I cannot take credit for, as clearly much brighter minds prevail here. I offer as evidence a fabulous talk by John Seely Brown (who also inspired FFBlog colleague, Tom Mandel in the past) at the 2008 IIT-ID Strategy Conference and summarize some of John’s critical thoughts below.

Consider how Innovation can lead to New Types of Institutions
Why Now? There is no Equilibrium [therefore no control or stability]
Rethink: Notions of Authority [quality] and Learning [continuous]
Understanding is Socially Constructed
We Learn In and Through Our Interactions with Others
Support with Participatory Architectures: Web 2.0 is such a medium
Social Groups are Bigger than Boundaries due to Social Networks
Start with the Long Tail: Participatory, Interest-Driven Learning [tapping natural energies first]
Support “Productive Inquiry”: Spiral Form of Learning that Moves Upward
Support Ecology of Learning/Doing Niches
Pedagogical Shift: From Authority Based Teaching to Peer-Based Learning [in relevant contexts]
Epistemological Shift:
- From Tools as Instruments to Tools as Productive Inquiry [to create learning artifacts -- hello, E 2.0! morphed with Design Thinking and Visual Thinking]
- From Knowledge [goodbye KM!] to Knowing [active]
Tinkering as a Learning Platform [the remix and the mashup]
Shift: From Instruction to Interest-Driven Participation
- From Assessment to Feedback and Reviews
- From Teaching to Sharing/Recommendations
- From Standardization to Specialization
Reinvent: Community Library Becomes After-School [Learning] Center
Accreditation From Personal Artifacts: Portfolio [not what you know but what you've done]
Back to the Future: The One Room Schoolhouse, Goes Global
20th Century = Scalable Efficiency | 21st Century = Exponential Learning [refer back to Zappos 'training' approach, at end of article]
Shift: From Transaction Economy to Relationship Economy [requires culture of trust]

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